Dogfights
by fb111a
Summary: A somewhat AU take on Power Rangers Zeo with some OCs in the mix. Sort of a Power Rangers/Dogfights crossover.
1. Introduction

For the first time in history, human pilots face off against warriors from another world.

In the air over Angel Grove, California, Air Force pilots take on forces from the Machine Empire in fierce aerial combat.

Now you're in the cockpit as a band of pilots faces down hostile machines.

Experience the battle, dissect the tactics… relive the dogfights over Angel Grove.


	2. First Dogfight

It had been a not-so-surprising thing to see the television on the History Channel, Kat reflected. Her husband was often watching it, and she couldn't help but grumble sometimes. She checked the remote, but noticed it was on the Tivo.

"Damn," she said, looking on the screen. No, she would not see the week's worth of _Days of Our Lives_.

But then, the introduction had come.

"…the dogfights over Angel Grove."

That did catch her eye. The Air Force had been in a bunch of dogfights during that time, and memories came flooding to her. She decided to sit down and watch. She could always go online to get the latest recaps.

-- Narration --

October 23, 2002

It is a routine test flight for four F-16 Fighting Falcons with the 46th Test and Evaluation Wing, based out of Elgin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida. Today, the plan is for a live-fire exercise against a dozen air-launched targets. It is a test flight for some F-16s to determine how well they can perform against the Quadrafighters of the Machine Empire.

Leading the flight is "K-Mart," a veteran pilot with over 2,000 hours of flight time, 400 of which were in combat, leading three other pilots: "Lite," "Cleaver," and "Dragon," the latter a civilian test pilot. For operational security reasons, the Air Force will not disclose the real names of any pilots involved. What none of these pilots recognize is that they are about to engage in the first of the many dogfights the United States Air Force would have with the Machine Empire.

As they are en route, an E-3 Sentry sends them an urgent message: Six bogeys heading their way…

-- Kat --

Kat remembered seeing that incident unfold in the Power Chamber. The Air Force planes had been jumped, and they were flinching at the thought of having to deal with that situation when things would change very suddenly…

-- Narration --

At this point, as the Quadrafighters are coming in, "Dragon" fires a single AIM-120 AMRAAM missile at the lead fighter.

"At the time, we did not even know if our missiles could kill them," Dragon said.

The F-16s soon find out. The missile hits the Quadrafighter head-on, and destroys it. It is the first kill for an American pilot against this extraterrestrial enemy.

The second comes in seconds. With a Machine Empire Quadrafighter on the five-o'clock of his wingman, Wally, Dragon acts quickly.

"We went with a Thach weave," Dragon said.

The Thach weave was first developed in 1942 by ace Jimmy Thach, enabling American pilots flying the F4F Wildcat to successfully defeat Japanese Zeroes. In a matter of seconds, the Quadrafighter is in Dragon's sights, and he fires his cannon.

A half-second burst into the cockpit of the Quadrafighter kills its pilot, and sends it spiraling down. Now, the odds are even, and Cleaver is now padlocked on the six o'clock of a Qaudrafighter on the tail of K-Mart, the flight lead.

Cleaver fires an AMRAAM, and blows up that Quadrafighter, seconds after K-Mart's Sidewinder has destroyed another Quadrafighter. Now, the Air Force has a four-to-two edge. Lite will bag one with a Slammer. Dragon will splash the final one. The Air Force has shot down six Quadrafighters with no losses.

The Air Force is not done. Advised by an E-3 Sentry that six more Quadrafighters are engaging the Red Ranger, K-Mart will lead his F-16s against the second flight of six. For once, a Power Ranger needs to be rescued.

-- Kat --

The scene shifted to the shadowed Air Force pilot named Dragon again.

"There was no real debate – you couldn't afford it. We knew we could take down the Quadrafighters, and the Red Ranger needed help," he said.

As a former Power Ranger, Kat couldn't really argue with that. If anything, she would have thought and done the exact same thing had she been in their position.

-- Narration --

The F-16s now charge towards the enemy, selecting their AMRAAMs for a beyond visual-range engagement against the enemy. When in range, they fire a barrage.

Four AMRAAM shots, four hits. The surviving Quadrafighters make a break to the north, trying to escape, but two F-16s, flown by Dragon and Cleaver, are on them. A high speed chase ensues, as the Quadrafighters try to get low and fast.

Dragon and Cleaver end the chase with two missile shots. The two kills bring the Air Force's total to twelve, the Air Force's biggest day in aerial combat since the Korean War. It is the first battle, with Dragon becoming the Air Force's first jet ace in a day.

-- Kat --

_So that was how the Air Force told the tale_, Kat thought. She picked up the phone and dialed Tanya's number from memory.

"Tanya? Kat. You may want to see what's on History Channel," she said.


	3. Over Angel Grove

The memories of those days came rushing back to Kat after she had hung up from her conversation with Tanya. After that incident, they had been wondering what would happen.

The phone rang, and Kat picked it up.

"Kimberly! How are you doing?" she asked. She listened for a little bit.

"Pretty good here, other than missing a chance to catch up on _Days of our Lives_ because the Tivo's snagging something from History Channel," Kat said.

She listened some more.

"You're watching, too?" Kat asked. "What do you think?"

She held the phone from her ear a little, as she listened.

"Yes, it does seem to paint the Air Force in a good light," she said. "We'll have to see how they handle some of the other stuff," she added.

--- 2002 ---

"We've managed to access the Pentagon's computer network," Billy said. "After that incident off Pensacola, it looks like the Department of Defense is standing up military forces around Angel Grove with the intention of carrying out operations against Machine Empire personnel and assets."

"What?" Tanya asked.

"They're deploying combat forces," Tommy said. "What are they deploying?"

"Looks like at least a squadron of fighter aircraft, primarily F-16C Fighting Falcons, apparently a new Block 70 that has not appeared in any of the open-source references," Billy said.

"Enhanced F-16s?" Rocky asked. "With what?"

"Unknown. But we never did account for all the debris from the Thunderzords when Rito destroyed them, and the time phenomena means that the United States military may have been able to reverse-engineer them enough to develop improved versions of their fighters, enabling them to successfully engage Quadrafighters," Billy said.

"What does that mean?" Kat asked, looking around.

"It means we're going to have to sort some things out," Tommy said.

"These warriors will feel a need to fight to protect their country and planet. Their methods will not be ours, necessarily. Tommy, wisdom and patience will be needed in handling this crisis. We have no quarrel with the American military, particularly when it is very likely that all they want to do is to protect their homes, families, country, and planet," Zordon said. "Our goal must be to temper their methods, not to back them into any corner."

"Right," Tommy said.

--- Present Day, Narration ---

The Quadrafighter was the standard atmospheric and space fighter of the Machine Empire. It was armed with a single energy weapon.

"The weapon was powerful, but they had no sensors, nothing beyond visually aiming at us," Dragon said. "They had to get into perfect firing position to have a chance to hit us. We could hit them from beyond visual range, we could hit them from any angle. We could see them first, and that let us dictate the terms of the engagements."

The F-16C and F-15C fighters equipping the 4450th Fighter Group were equipped with some of the best radars to have ever been placed in fighter aircraft. Armed with the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the AIM-9 Sidewinder, they have the ability to engage a target from any angle beyond visual range. Their radars even make their twenty-millimeter cannon deadly at any angle as well.

"Even Vietnam-era Sparrow missiles, with all of their problems, would probably have succeeded a majority of the time," Cleaver said.

The other advantage they have is maneuverability in the Earth's atmosphere. The Quadrafighter was primarily designed as a ground-attack vehicle. Against planes designed to fight other aircraft, it is at a sharp disadvantage.

"The only advantage they had was the fact that they could bug out to space and we couldn't follow them. And most of them never seemed to realize they should use it when they got into trouble," Cleaver added. "Not that we minded, of course. Every Quadrafighter we shot down was one less we'd have to deal with later, and the pilots of replacement Quadrafighters would be much less experienced."

"We had every other advantage you could imagine – maneuverability, tactics, weapons," Dragon added. "And we quickly added experience against their equipment to that list as well – after the first few missions, we had a book on the Quadrafighter."

One instance where the Air Force's superiority in tactics and weapons would be taken advantage of was on the first operational mission of the 4450th Fighter Group.

November, 2002. Dragon and Cleaver are flying a combat air patrol over Angel Grove. As they are on patrol, six Quadrafighters are reported incoming. The two F-16s turn towards the enemy and go to full military power.

"In that fight, the first step was to thin them out. To do that is really easy – send a Slammer," Dragon said.

The F-16s each send a single AIM-120 AMRAAM towards the enemy fighters. Both score hits, taking out two of the Machine Empire fighters.

"At that point, we had gone from a two-V-six to a two-V-four," Dragon said. "That's much more manageable – Air Force pilots train to deal with those at Red Flag routinely."

Dragon and Cleaver merge with the Quadrafighters, and immediately begin a hard turning dogfight.

"The general rule we had was when outnumbered, go into a turning fight – ideally, get into a Thach weave, and wait for help," Cleaver said.

The old World War II tactic proves effective both as a delaying tactic, and as a means to whittle down the odds. One Quadrafighter makes the mistake of giving Dragon a clear shot with his cannon. He fires a one-second burst and scores hits.

"The Quadrafighter just flew right into the rounds, and the next thing you knew, it was heading down towards the Pacific," Dragon said. "The Machine Empire had no concept of crossing shots or what all-aspect missiles meant in air combat. We did our best to ensure their pilots never got a chance to pass the word."

By this time, reinforcements in the form of four F-15s and two other F-16s have arrived. One F-16, flown by "Pepperjack," takes advantage of the "all aspect" capability the Air Force fighters have, and splashes a Quadrafighter maneuvering for a shot with an AIM-9 Sidewinder.

The last two turn and try to escape, but run into the F-15s, and die from a pair of AMRAAM shots from beyond visual range.

In its first official mission, the 4450th has destroyed six Quadrafighters with no losses. Their tactics, honed by decades of air-to-air combat, have now proven effective in defending Angel Grove.

"Superior tactics, superior training, and superior firepower will win every time," Dragon said, with a smile that had to show even though he was shaded.

--- Kat, present ---

Kat found that last statement a little distasteful. It was one of the few things she disliked about Hal, to be honest. It was not that Hal was evil, by any stretch. But at the same time… there was a bit of a calm detachment about using deadly force that left her feeling cold. Zordon would not have approved at all…

But at that time, Hal had never met Zordon, nor had he really known what was up about the Power Rangers. Hal had kept secrets from her of some sort relating to his work for the Air Force for a while, and she had kept secrets of her own from him. As such, they were even on that score. But it didn't stop her from wondering what secrets he had… and she was willing to bet he wondered about hers.

If they came out… what then? Probably that was his biggest fear. She had little to be ashamed of. The Air Force… well, there was controversy, to put it mildly. They had been very willing to escalate – too willing, she felt. But their motive had been to protect, not conquer. That counted for something in her book. What was line from one of Hal's favorite songs? When freedom called, we answered we were there?

She had answered that call in a fashion, and she had a very good idea that Hal had done so in another. Barring something really serious, say, on the order of an unprovoked nuclear attack on civilians, she could accept whatever secrets Hal had.


End file.
